What's it about?
A new multi-camera family comedy starring Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran as single moms, best friends - and former nerds - who fear their privileged and overly indulged daughters are turning out just like the mean girls who picked on them in high school.
So, how was it?
This is the second CBS sitcom of the season to accidentally find itself airing on the wrong network. I'm referring, of course, to the painfully unfunny WHITNEY, whose crass humor and laugh track would be completely at home on CBS next to TWO AND A HALF MEN and feels distinctly out of place on the network that brings us 30 ROCK and PARKS AND RECREATION. And now FOX is airing I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER, where the ever-present laugh track, two-dimensional characters and obnoxious humor again bring to mind the sub-par-yet-inexplicably-popular sitcoms of CBS.
As far as can be judged by the first half hour, I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER has the same problem as FOX's last new premiere, ALLEN GREGORY: absolutely none of the characters are likable. The eponymous teenagers are indistinguishably bratty, with absolutely no personality trait outside of "selfish." These two characters would have us believe that all every teenage daughter wants is to be popular, wear slutty clothes, and be mean to their moms (which may or may not be true). But the bigger problem is that the two moms, Annie (Pressly) and Nikki (Finneran) are too pathetic to be relatable. They are too easily threatened, too easily defeated, and too easily manipulated by their 15-year-olds. It's impossible to sympathize with a grown woman who lets herself be walked all over by her own tweeny child, much less one who eats an entire cherry pie with her fingers. The show would be more appropriately titled: I AM DEATHLY AFRAID OF MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER.
Granted, I'm not a middle-aged woman with a teenage daughter, so I'm sure I'm not the target audience of this specific sitcom. I don't doubt that this show will find an audience somewhere. The first episode had a decent premiere with 6.8 million viewers and a 2.8 rating (though this was undoubtedly helped by the fact that ABC's comedy block was entirely reruns last night).
Rating:
** Okay. I may give it another episode or two to see if it gets better.
Truth be told, I probably won't ever watch this show again, but all in all it wasn't exactly atrocious. Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran are genuinely good comedic actresses, some of the jokes were funny, and Wendi McLendon-Covey (BRIDESMAIDS) has a delightful supporting role as the girls' principal and former high school rival of the mothers. This show is just not for me -- someone who despises laugh tracks, prefers strong characters, and has never been a mother. But I would not be surprised to see this show get a full season pickup if it doesn't lose too much of its initial audience.
Well, that's it! Our last new show of 2011. No more premieres until after the New Year. Have a very happy holidays, Fellow Addicts. Remember to keep an eye out for SCREEN ADDICTION's Mid-Season Preview, and then join PilotWatch for reviews of shows like ABC's G.C.B., NBC's SMASH and FOX's TOUCH.
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